A User’s Manual for the Human Body: How Traditional Chinese Medicine helps the body heal itself is out to buy now in good book retailers, online, Hammersmith Health Books and Amazon. This book is a transformative guide to the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for the 21st century, showing how these differ from those underlying Western medicine, what that means in practice and how we can help our bodies to heal themselves and thereby achieve a longer, healthier life.
The author, Alex Wu, a former computer engineer, uses his work knowledge to interpret the key concepts between the way a computer functions and the body within Chinese medicine so that they become significantly easier to understand for today’s readers.
I have always had an interest to learn more about TCM, but much of the text has always either been written in Chinese language or the contents are too hard to understand. My mum is a strong believer in TCM and the benefits of using it. She believes that Chinese medicine cures the roots of the illness rather than to cope with the symptoms of the illness. She finds that this way is a better way for our body to recover and renew. This is also why I am very much wanting to learn about it.
I am able to read and write in Chinese but I don’t enjoy reading it as much as in the English language. So I am thrilled to review this book as I find this book is so easy to understand and it tackles the concept of TCM very well. The author explains how Chinese medicine provides a dramatically different point of view to that of Western medicine, in particular in its foundation is a belief that the body has a powerful self-healing system that must be nurtured and encouraged, not stifled with symptom-suppressing treatments. In this book, he also gives some case studies like gout, psoriasis, the common cold and today’s obesity epidemic, to show how promoting body energy and self-healing can resolve the ‘incurable’.
When the author mentions that drinking iced water as a cause of obesity, I find it absurd, but having read it, I can understand why and how the iced water can cause a major disturbance to the body’s cooling process. A sudden change in temperature will cause damage to your heart and spleen functions and contribute to obesity. This is why my grandparents and my mum never drank iced water, even though the weather is very hot! They know how the temperature of the water balances the ‘qi’ in your body.
Also, not chewing my food was another thing that I was always told off for by my parents. Chewing food helps increases nutrient absorption and also ensures sufficient secretion of bile, which is essential in the digestion of fats. It is definitely an interesting read.
This book is an internet self-publishing sensation in China, with sales of over three million copies, and now it is published in English for the first time. I would definitely recommend this book for people who are interested in TCM and learning how to help your body to heal.
This video shows some of the massages used by Alex Wu and the massages, which don’t need to be carried out by a trained professional, aim to improve the digestive system, lessen back pain and relax tense muscles, among others. Overall, they will help boost the body’s energy levels and its ability to fight illness.
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